R. Crumb

R CRUMB From the Underground to GenesisHighly Recommended. By Robert Crumb. Musée d'Art moderne in Paris, France, presents a premiere exhibit of R. Crumb‘s art, a career-spanning retrospective with images from his earliest adolescent work to the original art for Zap Comix #1, to published and unpublished underground covers, pages and stories, to sketchbook material. We like the variety, including full color work, much of this from the original art. And lots of unusual material. Handsome large size, plus five essays and a timeline. IDW, 2017. Adult Material...More.

Item Code: RCFUH
Hard Cover, 9x12, 204pg, Full Color
$49.99 $44.99

Just when I felt I'd seen most of Crumb's work in many different forms, this comes along with fresh material, and much of it reproduced from the rare original art. It's quite a book and from a Paris exhibition, no less. See our website for much more by RC.

ALSO AVAILABLER CRUMB THE SKETCHBOOK Volume 2 1968-1975Recommended. By Robert Crumb. This book contains hundreds of sketches from the master of underground comic art, including cover roughs for Zap, Motor City and Despair comics, the introduction of Aline, the first female Yetis, Flakey Foont and Mr. Natural, Honeybunch Kaminski, San Francisco drug culture and big buoyant butts, all wrapped up in a quality hard cover featuring front and back illustrations newly hand-colored by Crumb himself. This combines the two middle volumes from the second boxed set, produced directly from the original artworks now belonging to an ardent French collector, into one fat 444-page Crumb feast, at an irresistible price. Taschen, 2017. Adult Material...More.

Item Code: RCSK02H
Hard Cover, 9x11, 444pg, Partial Color
$39.99

ALSO AVAILABLEART & BEAUTY MAGAZINE Drawings by R. CrumbRecommended. Gathering all three volumes of R. Crumb's acclaimed Art & Beauty Magazine, #3 unpublished until now, this guides the reader through the 20-year history of Crumb's pin-up magazine, his take on recapturing the nudie cutie magazines of the 1930s and 40s, but updated with nude and stylish drawings of his wife Aline, starlets, girlfriends, and other Crumb-style ladies. Artwork from 1990s to the most recent drawings completed in 2016. David Zwirner, 2016. Mature Readers...More.

Item Code: ARBEH
Hard Cover - No Dustjacket, 7x10, 132pg, b&w
$35.00

Don Rosa’s Ducks

WALT DISNEY UNCLE SCROOGE AND DONALD DUCK Volume 8 Escape From Forbidden ValleyThe Don Rosa Library 8. Recommended. By Don Rosa. In search of rare Amazonian nutmegs, Scrooge and Donald approach deadly Forbidden Valley... a lost world of live dinosaurs that Donald once stampeded! Now the long-suffering locals get revenge—and only Scrooge can save Donald from becoming a Jurassic blue-plate special. In "The Quest for Kalevala," Scrooge, Gyro, and Magica De Spell hunt for a legendary gold-making machine... and in "The Black Knight," master thief Arpin Lusene arrives to rob Scrooge's money bin — or destroy it! Fantagraphics, 2017...More.

WALT DISNEY UNCLE SCROOGE and DONALD DUCK Volume 7 & 8 Set SignedSigned bookplate! The Don Rosa Library Set. Recommended. By Don Rosa. In this box set, Volume 7 includes eight complete adventures: Scrooge McDuck searches for a lost city, the Money Bin blasts off into space, super villains team up... also "The Once and Future Duck," "The Vigilante of Pizen Bluff," "Attack of the Hideous Space-Varmits," "The Last Lord of El Dorado," "A Matter of Some Gravity." Volume 8 offers a search for rare Amazonian nutmegs and Scrooge and Donald approach deadly Forbidden Valley... a lost world of live dinosaurs! The long-suffering locals get revenge by throwing Donald in with the dinos. Fantagraphics, 2017...More.

Getting these in the sets doesn't save any money but it gets you the cool slipcase, if you can wait every two issues instead of every one. All individual volumes are still available, as well as the boxed sets of Vol 3-4, and Vol 5-6.

Victorian & Pre-Raphaelite Illustration

THE ART OF GF WATTSHighly Recommended. By Nicholas Tromans. Published to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of G.F. Watts (1817-1904),this book provides a lively and engaging introduction to one of the most charismatic figures in the history of British art during the Victorian era. Covering all aspects of Watts's career, it places him at the center of the visual culture of the 19th century.As a young man Watts exhibited alongside Turner, and by the end of his long career he was influential upon Picasso. Sculptor, portraitist and creator of classic Symbolist imagery, Watts was seen also as more than an artist -- a visionary whose art charted the progress of humanity in the modern world. PHP, 2017...More.

Item Code: ARTGF
Soft Cover, 7x10, 136pg, Text/Full Color
$30.00

ALSO AVAILABLEGREAT MASTERS OF DECORATIVE ARTSir Edward Burne-Jones, William Morris, and Walter Crane. Recommended. By Aymer Vallance and Lewis F. Day. This beautifully done hardcover collects three special annual issues of The Art Journal, from 1898-1900, each devoted to one of these three masters of design and illustration: Edward Burne-Jones, William Morris, and Walter Crane. Several color plates have been added, while the rust-colored cloth cover beautifully captures the feel of the original editions, with an elaborate green and gilt embossed design. Inside every page features magnificent illustrations, and an insightful text that explores their philosophies and methods. Calla, 2017...More.

ALSO AVAILABLETHE BOOK & PERIODICAL ILLUSTRATIONS OF ARTHUR HUGHESHighly Recommended. By Maroussia Oakley. The first detailed account of the work of this very important Pre-Raphaelite artist between 1855 and 1913. His two often-reprinted classics are George Macdonald's classic At the Back of the North Wind and The Princess and the Goblin. His wonderful artwork for Christina Rossetti's Sing-Song and Speaking Likenesses were notable for their witty accompaniment to her poetry and prose, matching the curiosity of texts created to amuse (or terrify) Victorian and Edwardian children. Oak Knoll Press, 2016...More.

ALSO AVAILABLEFRANK DICKSEE 1853-1928 His Art and LifeHighly Recommended. By Simon Toll. Victorian painter and illustrator Frank Dicksee gets the full treatment, a history of his life and works with a catalog raisonné, many pictures previously unpublished. He was born with the first wave of Pre-Raphaelitism and he inherited the romantic spirit of the movement. If you like the work of fellow PRB members Waterhouse and Watts, this is your painter. Knights, beautiful ladies, mythology, in wonderfully detailed oil paintings. He became one of the most popular artists of the late 19th-century, painting in a sumptuous and dramatic style. Antique Collectors Club, 2016...More.

Item Code: FRADH
Hard Cover, 8x12, 240pg, Full Color
$95.00 $85.00

ALSO AVAILABLETHE RUSSIAN VISION The Art of Ilya Repin
By David Jackson. Tsarist Russia and issues that preoccupied Russian thought during this crucial period of historical change. Ilya Repin (1844-1930) is a key figure of Russian nineteenth-century realism; his career spanned a period of huge cultural, social and political change, bearing witness to the challenge to the Russian autocracy, the coming of the October Revolution and the dawn of the Soviet Union. ACC, 2015...More.

Comic Book Archives

VAMPIRELLA Forbidden Fruit Volume 1Issues #0-5, 2017. By Paul Cornell. Art by Jimmy Broxton. One thousand years have passed since Vampirella disappeared--but now she is awakened to discover she's the subject of magazine and comic book adventures! And she is about to discover time travel, taking her from the distant future back into Nazi Germany and World War II, where she is suddenly a prisoner of the Third Reich! And this gets even wilder as she dies and yet is resurrected in a land of angels and souls, before she's sent back to finish the job in Germany...! Dynamite, 2017...More.

Item Code: VAM01
Soft Cover, 7x10, 168pg, Full Color
$19.99 $17.99

See the website for Vampi Warren Archives, new archives, graphic novels, and statues.

GREEN ARROW THE GOLDEN AGE OMNIBUS Voume 1Collects More Fun #73-107, World's Finest #7-28, Adventure #103-117, 1941-47. Recommended. By Mort Weisinger, et al. Art by George Papp, Cliff Young, Maurice Del Bourgo et al. For the first time, DC collects the early 1940s tales that introduced the crime-fighting archer known as Green Arrow, who today stars in the hit CW TV series Arrow. In these original adventures, millionaire industrialist Oliver Queen battles crime with the help of his young ward, Speedy, taking on corruption and crime in Star City, including villains like Bull's-Eye, the Voice, the Skylark and many more. Green Arrow was one of the few DC characters to keep going after the Golden Age of Comics. His longevity was due to the influence of creator Mort Weisinger, who kept him as a back-up feature to the headlining Superboy. DC, 2017...More.

BATMAN IN THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD The Bronze Age Volume 1Collects #74-109, 1967-70. Highly Recommended. By Bob Haney. Art by Neal Adams, Nick Cardy, Andru & Esposito et al. The late ‘60s marked the height of Batmania, when fans of the Batman television series and the comic books couldn't get enough of the Caped Crusader. His appearances on covers meant higher sales, so it was decreed Batman would take up permanent residence in The Brave and the Bold, where each issue he teamed up with a different DC hero, heroine or group. At the time, such crossovers were rare in the DC Universe. These groundbreaking stories featured Wonder Woman, the Flash, Deadman, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, the Teen Titans and others. DC, 2017...More.

Item Code: BATBB01
Soft Cover, 7x10, 456pg, Full Color
$34.99 $29.99

Comic Strip Collections

THE COMPLETE CHESTER GOULD'S DICK TRACY Volume 23Dailies & Sundays, 1966-67. Recommended. By Chester Gould. Tracy is on the trail of the aptly-named Mr. Bribery and his equally grotesque sister, Ugly Christine, in a story that also features a substance-abusing witch doctor and a shelf of shrunken heads. Meanwhile, newlyweds Junior and Moon Maid enter the story, and Dick Tracy's troubles are compounded when he comes face to face with master criminal Haf-and-Haf, one side of whose face is hideously disfigured. The Space Race has found Tracy, with flying bucket-like air cars, space ships, and the alien Moon Maid shaking up things! IDW, 2017...More.

Miscellany

THE SHADOW #125The Death Tower and The Silent Seven. Recommended. By Walter B. Gibson. Covers by Jerome Rozen and George Rozen. Two very early adventures, the 8th and 9th issues from 1932. First, the Dark Avenger's investigation of the murderous Dr. Palermo leads him invade “The Death Tower” and discover the existence of a hooded secret society, in the early novel that introduced reporter Clyde Burke and The Shadow's autogyro. Then, when a wealthy businessman is killed, The Shadow must infiltrate and unmask “The Silent Seven” to solve the murder! Sanctum, 2017...More.

Volumes 1-6 all remain available at the same price. See the website for full details.

KRAMPUS 2 Playing CardsRecommended. Edited and Designed by Monte Beauchamp. Just in time to miss Christmas. But, he, Krampus is the devil of Christmas, after all. From the publisher of Blab, an all-new deck of playing cards featuring 52 different Krampus images. High-quality printing and lamination. The images are reproduced from vintage, pre-WWI Krampus postcards. In the early Christmas traditions of Europe, the Krampus was St. Nikolaus' dark servant -- a hairy, horned, supernatural beast whose pointed ears and long, slithering tongue gave misbehavers the creeps! Last Gasp, 2017...More.

Item Code: KRAPC02
3x4, 52 cards, Full Color
$6.95

ALSO AVAILABLEKRAMPUS The Devil Of ChristmasRecommended. By Monte Beauchamp. Rediscover the Christmas tradition of Krampus, the hairy, horned, supernatural beast who was Santa's enforcer in 19th century German traditions! These quirky and occasionally terrifying images show what happens to children at the holidays...when they've been BAD. This supernatural beast chases kids through the forest, tempts virtuous women and gives would-be misbehavers the creeps--all in cool, vintage artwork! Last Gasp, 2010...More.

Coming in April

PERCY CROSBY'S SKIPPY Daily Comics 1934-1936Recommended. Edited by Jared Gardner and Dean Mullaney. This fourth volume collects the complete daily strips from 1934-1936, at the height of Percy Crosby's cartooning career, but also during his one-man political and social crusade. Crosby influenced cartoonists from Charles Schulz to Walt Kelly to Garry Trudeau, and, perhaps more than any other cartoonist before him, brought philosophy and politics to the American newspaper comic strip. In the end, it would be his outspoken political and philosophical beliefs that would place him increasingly outside the mainstream of 1940s American culture. IDW, 2018. Due Apr. ...More.

These have been released sporadically—Volume 3 came out in 2014. As a result we no longer keep them in stock, but we will special order any of the first three volumes for you. Allow an extra three weeks for delivery.

Coming in May

MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN THE FRED FREDERICKS SUNDAYS Volume 1
By Lee Falk. Art by Fred Fredericks. Following Frederick's updating of Mandrake in the 1960s, we have a hipper and cooler magician, thanks to the art stylings of Fred Fredricks. And yet, both Fredericks and Mandrake's creator Lee Falk managed to land our top-hatted hero into some pretty outlandish and action-packed adventures on this Earth and beyond! This volume includes the unwelcome return of Mandrake's arch enemy, The Cobra, the introduction of a sinister new crime syndicate called The Underworld and the creation of a counter crime organization called Inter-Intel, headed up by Mandrake. Titan, 2017. Due May. ...More.

ALSO AVAILABLEMANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN SUNDAYS Volume 11935-1937. The Hidden Kingdom of Murderers. Highly Recommended. By Lee Falk and Phil Davis. This unusual strip was the first to feature a magician. Unlike other adventurers, Mandrake used his illusionist skills and his head, rather than his fists. Artist Phil Davis's work is as good as Alex Raymond's from the same period, exhibiting a fine-line brush and beautiful girls as good as the master. I'm very excited to finally have this long-overdue collection of a superior, oft-neglected classic. Titan, 2016...More.

This first collection, above, remains my very favorite in the series. It's an eye-opener, with fine artwork worthy of Alex Raymond, and cool stories of high adventure the world over. It's a great book. See the extra scans and my bonus review for more details. And see the other Mandrake collections, including the 1930s dailies, on the website.

PRE-CODE CLASSICS WEB OF MYSTERY Volume 1Collects #1-6, 1951. Recommended. Art by Lou Cameron, Gene Colan, Mike Sekowsky et a Here comes the first volume of Ace Comics' horror title, one that I personally like quite a bit. Artist Lou Cameron is an unsung name from this time; his Time Machine for Classics Illustrated is his best known work, but early on he was doing superior and imaginative artwork sometimes as good as a Frazetta or Williamson. And here's Mike Sekowsky, between his career beginning at Timely and ending up at DC Comics. PS Artbooks, 2018. Due May. ...More.

PRE-CODE CLASSICS BEWARE Volume 2Collects #8-14, 1954-55. Recommended. Art by Sid Check, Frazetta, Jay Disbrow, Myron Fass and Harry Harrison. Frazetta puts in a rare apperance, collaborating with Sid Check on an amazing cover. There are also stories of "a heart torn out, blood drainage" and that's only what Overstreet is pointing out. One of the weirder titles of the time, as the filled newstands meant publishers had to outdo the competiton with bloodier, darker, stranger stories of horror. Sid Check provides two exceptional stories here and also Jay Disbrow, who is clunky but always fun. PS Artbooks, 2018. Due May. ...More.

We have as few as three copies of these, so act accordingly. See our website for all Hurt books still available.

Bargain Books up to 75% Off

These books are low in stock, and may have already been marked down once. I've marked them down even further just for this listing, to clear them out to make way for new items. First come, first served.

Mature Readers

New this week is Elysium Girls by Stefan Soell. I find it an exceptional book and while I choose to avoid recommendations on most adult material, I make an exception here. It is Highly Recommended.

Soell's other books include Celestial Girls, Modern Urban Girls, and Alpengluhn, all of which we also handle. Each one I have found to be extra special and judging from sales of these, so do many of you. Soell's work is quite seductive, his women unique in their poses, their attitude and beauty.

News
and Notes

Our Annual Bestsellers email went out on Wednesday morning, December 27th. If you didn’t get it, you can find it here on our blog. I think of this as my personal Year in Review, which I must acknowledge is a favorite feature of mine in the Spectrum annual. Except that’s always nearly a full year behind. Ours is right up to date.

This gives me a chance to say something special about some of my favorite books, and to add details or insights I have learned since they first appeared. I can also acknowledge just why I think they are among our most popular titles. All these special notes, which appear under most items, are my personal commentary.

Very best wishes from our staff here, for a delightful New Year. Thank you for your support this year and we hope to continue to serve you with fast and friendly service.

~Bud

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